


Knock Three Times for the Holy Ghost

by UnicornMister



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Rated for later Explicit content, Religious Themes, Roxas belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Secular Religion, or the Mormon Church AU that no one wanted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 01:46:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11795877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornMister/pseuds/UnicornMister
Summary: They're on the precipice of eighteen and falling apart. Roxas is trying to hold it all together so he can go on a Mission and live up to everything that he's been held up to while Axel wants nothing more than to escape by any means necessary. When it comes time to choose, they both have to decide what's worth living for, even if it's each other.





	Knock Three Times for the Holy Ghost

Roxas raises his knuckles, raps sharp staccato beats with his bones on the hollow hardwood. Elder Price coughs, and Roxas stares at the splintered trim as they’re all counting seconds in their heads. Sweat dampens his hairline, and just as Jordan draws in breath to suggest they get on going to the next house, the door pulls inward. A woman fills the frame, cigarette in the corner of her mouth and hard eyes. Her answer of “Yeah?” is even harder.

Not unfamiliar with such a greeting, Price takes over like they were having an uninterrupted conversation. “Afternoon, Mrs. Roberts, right? We’re looking for Axel. Is he around?”

She takes in their full suits and ties and sucks in an agitated breath of smoke through her teeth, blows it out with her rage. “Goddammit, he ain’t in trouble again is he? You the FBI?” Before they can answer she bellows over her shoulder, “Axel! Get your ass down here!” She’s gone the next second, throwing her weight up stairs that are just inside the hallway, a muffled squeal of old hinges before there’s muffled thuds and raised indistinguishable voices.

Both Roxas and Jordan turned their wide eyes to the elders who are, unironically, barely a year older than the two boys. Price smiles and nods as if to say _don’t worry, we’ve got this._

Creaks signal the return of two sets of feet, and the next thing that hits Roxas’s eyes is tall, damp crimson hair and a wide expanse of bare chest. The boy is fixing a towel he had clutched at his waist and flashes a sheepish smile on them, supplicating. “Howdy boys, you wanted to see me?”

“Yeah, hey sorry if we caught you at a bad time. Probably should’ve called ahead.” The missionary holds out his hand, “I’m Elder Price, these are Elders Jones, Lee, and Johnson.” They each nod at their names, an informal roll call.

Axel takes the offered hand, gives it a good shake with real relief in his grin. “Shit, Mormons huh? Y’all shoulda said so, would’ve saved my skin earlier.” Mrs. Roberts sniffs from the door and lumbers further into the house.

“Anyway, you wanna come around back? Lemme put some clothes on and I’ll get you boys some tea.”

 

* * *

 

 

It’s not until the five of them are settled in the collection of chairs in the backyard and out of the direct sunlight that Roxas gets a good chance to study the boy in front of him. Turns out that Axel knew a lot about the Church already. Their notes had only listed that he was Inactive, didn’t say why or give any background on him. It surprised him, especially once he took in the poked ink marks along Axel’s bicep, the dark bruises on his inner arms when he talked with his hands. He caught Roxas staring and winked at him, just a sly twitch of his eye that had Roxas overheated and staring at the faded cup of his untouched tea.

He was supposed to be learning from this experience, but he found he couldn’t think beyond the boy in front of him. Roxas wasn’t shy, but when Elder Jones called on him and asked him to bear his testimony, his mouth dried up at all the eyes on him. He summoned some spit and coughed, “sure.”

It was by rote memory alone that gave him the words he needed to bear testament to the fact that Jesus was the son of God, and that the Latter-Day Saint Church was the True Church of God. Though surely Axel had heard these selfsame words before, his eyes didn’t leave Roxas the whole time his lips were moving.

It was only after the chorus of Amens that Jordan reached out and clapped Axel on the back. “Hey, Wednesday nights is when we have Mutual. You’re sure welcome to come, this week is combined Volley Ball.”

“Y’all gonna be there?” He was looking at Roxas as he smiled and said, “Wouldn’t want to miss out on any new friends.”

**Author's Note:**

> Last year I never got around to a contribution for AkuRoku day, so this year instead of a one shot I'm going to leave everyone hanging for five more years with another multi-chaptered fic. ^^;  
> My own failures to be consistent aside, please note that this fic is based upon my own decade of membership within the church, so it will be as accurate as I can possibly make it.  
> Lastly, thanks belongs to my girlfriend for giving birth to this idea at my request so that I could nurture it and grow it in my own way.


End file.
